A new bioassay system for screening high berberine-producing cell colonies of Thalictrum minus.

A new method of estimating the amount of berberine released from minute cell colonies of Thalictrum minus has been devised to facilitate the selection of high berberine-producing cell lines. In this system, cell aggregates obtained from a cell suspension culture are grown on small pieces of an agar culture medium and the concentration of berberine which has been released from the cells into the agar piece is assayed by the antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus MT2026. Screening of 1000 cell colonies by the "agar piece method" has resulted in the isolation of four, high berberine-producing cell lines, although they have been found to be more or less unstable with respect to the biosynthetic capability during successive subcultures.